Film look plug-ins for Vegas

[Jim Rog]

Hello

Wasn’t sure where to post this one

I am using Vegas and wanting to get my clips the film look can anyone recommend me any good decent plug-ins for Vegas or that can work along side Vegas to achieve this

Thanks

Jim

[Jim Ohair]

Your Vegas came with Magic Bullet correct?
I believe on Vasst.com they have some too.

[Mike Kujbida]

The biggest drawback to Magic Bullet is the insane increase in render times.
As Jim Ohair mentioned, VASST has a product called Celluloid Film Looks ($25) that comes with ReelPak-1.
Additional ReelPaks are available for $25 each.
These looks are similar to Magic Bullet but render considerably faster.

[Marc Salvatore]

If you buy the upgrade to the full version of Magic Bullet and use a supported Open GL graphics card the renders times become reasonable and the quality is fantastic.

[Ian Stark]

You might also consider Film Effects - a new product from NewBlueFX which is due for imminent release (next few weeks, I believe). Not sure on pricing but all will be revealed soon I expect!

Film Effects comprises:

- Film Camera, to simulate jitter and flicker
- Film Look, giving you control over tint, saturation, brightness, contrast, gamma and diffusion
- Film Damage - to control wear, wear pattern (e.g. splotchy, grainy), spots & blemishes, density, depth, thickness and colour of scratches and an interesting feature that I don't think I've seen elsewhere that allows you to affect the blue channel only - the rationale being that this simulates the outer layer of film emulsion, which is blue, and gets the most weathering.
- Film Express is a combination of several of the above effects into one menu, with a ton of presets that emulate classic film looks.
- Film Pro - Has all the features of all the Film effects in one comprehensive filter, again with lots of presets.

I've been lucky enough to play with a beta copy and would say:

- It is way ahead of the free MB Film Looks that are bundled with Vegas in that you have extensive control over parameters. It isn't quite up with Magic Bullet Editors but then I don't expect the price will be either.
- Film Damage is a big improvement over the Vegas film damage filter
- Rendering is faster than MB
- large number of presets is welcome. Most will need tweaking to work optimally with your footage but that's to be expected

In summary I think these effects will be great for the serious beginner or enthusiast, as well as for the budget conscious pro (I'm taking a flyer about price here but going on previous NewBlueFX pricing I imagine it will be 'sensible').

And let's face it - it's always nice to see more plugins for Vegas, eh?

Just to clear up a point - the Magic Bullet that comes bundled free with Vegas (does it still? I don't see it mentioned at the Vegas site, although I didn't delve too deep) is NOT configurable - in other words it's a collection of a few looks created with the MB engine but you can't edit the settings. The looks are great though, just not many of them. Magic Bullet Editors is the Vegas (and others) plugin that allows you to tweak existing looks as well as create new ones. Magic Bullet Look Suite is the After Effects only suite that is similar (but more extensive) to Editors.

I would say the NewBlueFX sits somewhere between the bundled looks and MB Editors (but much closer to the latter) both functionally and results-wise. I expect the same to be true with their pricing policy as well.

I can't compare them with VASSTs products as I haven't used those.

[Simon Denny]

You could try making your own looks with a few different Fx's.
Using Color corrector & Color secondary, levels, color gradient.

Check it out and experiment.

Cheers
Simon

[Michael Vaden]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

You might also consider Film Effects - a new product from NewBlueFX which is due for imminent release (next few weeks, I believe). Not sure on pricing but all will be revealed soon I expect!

Film Effects comprises:

- Film Camera, to simulate jitter and flicker
- Film Look, giving you control over tint, saturation, brightness, contrast, gamma and diffusion
- Film Damage - to control wear, wear pattern (e.g. splotchy, grainy), spots & blemishes, density, depth, thickness and colour of scratches and an interesting feature that I don't think I've seen elsewhere that allows you to affect the blue channel only - the rationale being that this simulates the outer layer of film emulsion, which is blue, and gets the most weathering.
- Film Express is a combination of several of the above effects into one menu, with a ton of presets that emulate classic film looks.
- Film Pro - Has all the features of all the Film effects in one comprehensive filter, again with lots of presets.

I've been lucky enough to play with a beta copy and would say:

- It is way ahead of the free MB Film Looks that are bundled with Vegas in that you have extensive control over parameters. It isn't quite up with Magic Bullet Editors but then I don't expect the price will be either.
- Film Damage is a big improvement over the Vegas film damage filter
- Rendering is faster than MB
- large number of presets is welcome. Most will need tweaking to work optimally with your footage but that's to be expected

In summary I think these effects will be great for the serious beginner or enthusiast, as well as for the budget conscious pro (I'm taking a flyer about price here but going on previous NewBlueFX pricing I imagine it will be 'sensible').

And let's face it - it's always nice to see more plugins for Vegas, eh?

Just to clear up a point - the Magic Bullet that comes bundled free with Vegas (does it still? I don't see it mentioned at the Vegas site, although I didn't delve too deep) is NOT configurable - in other words it's a collection of a few looks created with the MB engine but you can't edit the settings. The looks are great though, just not many of them. Magic Bullet Editors is the Vegas (and others) plugin that allows you to tweak existing looks as well as create new ones. Magic Bullet Look Suite is the After Effects only suite that is similar (but more extensive) to Editors.

I would say the NewBlueFX sits somewhere between the bundled looks and MB Editors (but much closer to the latter) both functionally and results-wise. I expect the same to be true with their pricing policy as well.

I can't compare them with VASSTs products as I haven't used those.

Interesting. I have Magic Bullet. Zenote has some good plug-ins and it renders faster than Magic Bullet. Film Magic pro is good too.

I'm still waiting for Magic Bullet Looks. I can't wait for that one.

[Ian Stark]

I've used Zenote's plugins and I quite like them, but they don't have any film look effects for Vegas, with the exception of Grain which is, er, OK. Their glow is nice. They do sell film effects for Premier.

It looks like they've kinda given up the ghost though. Zenote claimed they wanted to be the 'one stop shop for all your Vegas needs' but I think they last updated their web site in 2004. And the user forum has been "coming soon" for several years as well!

I looked at the other film effects plugin Michael mentioned (Film Magic Pro) but that also is not for Vegas - just After Effects.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

I would say the NewBlueFX sits somewhere between the bundled looks and MB Editors (but much closer to the latter) both functionally and results-wise. I expect the same to be true with their pricing policy as well.

I can't compare them with VASSTs products as I haven't used those.

The NewBlueFX looks are very nice, but absolutely nothing like Magic Bullet, MisFire, or any other product out there. The filters are great to be sure, but having seen multiple comments from folks that they're "like Magic Bullet..." They're not. But they *are* film looks, and they render exceptionally fast by comparison to Magic Bullet.
The VASST plugins are identical in styling to the MB Looks Suite, but render significantly faster.

[Jeff Harper]

Which plug-ins, Douglas? I'm interested in learning more...Thank you in advance.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Which plug-ins, Douglas? I'm interested in learning more...Thank you in advance.

Jeff, I'm not sure what you mean by your question. The thread is about Filmlooks plugs, so the three plugs mentioned in this thread are:
Magic Bullet
NewBlueFX
VASST ReelPaks.

[Jeff Harper]

Not clear, sorry, which VASST plug ins are you referring to that rival MB for film looks? Obviously, I'm not too familiar with the VASST offerings.

[Ian Stark]

Out of curiosity, Spot, in which ways do they differ (NewBlueFX and MB that is)?

You mentioned that you'd seen other folks discussing the NewBlueFX. I had a quick look around (not extensive, I confess) to see what other people are saying but couldn't find any obvious threads, here at DVi or anywhere else. Could you point me in their direction when you get a chance please? Many thanks.

I guess really speaking we're all comparing apples with oranges to some extent in that Look Suite isn't available for Vegas, the Vegas-bundled MB Looks (and I believe the VASST plugins - please put me right if I'm wrong here) are not configurable, and the NewBlueFX film look plug does not de-interlace.

In the end, the product of choice will be the one that suits an individual's budget, taste and the desire/need to tweak.

Personally, the more the merrier!

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Ian/Jeff,
I'd say the NewBlueFX work much like the VASST ReelPaks, with several additional creative twists over the VASST product. They're color filters with some additional creativity added, which provide some beautiful pop to images. They're also a great deal more complex than the "plug n' play" ReelPaks that VASST offers; this allows users greater flexibility.
The Magic Bullet tools are truly unique in our industry. Magic Bullet examines relationships from pixel to pixel, and creates their looks based on the pixel relationships plus chroma/luma shifts occurring in the image. In other words, highly complex. The MB tools are also very expensive both in $$ and time. If speed is your need, then MB definitely isn't the way to go. Even with GPU access, they're still slow in comparison to what the NewBlueFX tools can do. In some cases, the NewBlueFX tools are faster than the VASST tools, depending on the film look selected.
Perhaps the better method of comparing the tools is to wait for the NewBlueFX tools to ship. I did use them on a short piece for a webclient only yesterday; I have my faves in the NewBlueFX apps already, and I'm sure you'll find yours, too. :-)

[Ian Stark]

Thanks Spot - looks like a good sum up of what's out there.

As you say, regardless of the virtues of other products I don't think anything is going to top MB at this time - - including cost and render time!